The present disclosure relates generally to optical devices with a graded bandgap structure and methods of making and using the same.
Since the inception of microelectronics, a consistent trend has been toward the development of optoelectronic circuits, such as optical interconnects. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that optoelectronic circuits may offer advantages over typical electronic circuits, such as, for example, a much larger bandwidth (by many orders of magnitude). Such optoelectronic circuits often involve the transmission of optical signals, and the interconversion of such optical signals into electronic signals. In some instances, performing optical signal transmission and conversion involves a photodetector device that is compatible with both the bandwidth and the speed of the optical signal. Many photodetectors are based on and/or involve semiconductor technology, including compound semiconductors (GaAs, InP, GalnAsP, etc.), bulk silicon, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, and CMOS technology.